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Billy Connolly joins The Hobbit

Liam — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:56:30 +0000

With around 5 months left of filming, Scottish comedian and actor Billy Connolly is the latest addition to the cast of The Hobbit. Connolly will play Dain Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield (played by Richard Armitage).

In the press release director Peter Jackson confirmed Connolly will be the final actor to join the films:

“We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connelly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of “The Hobbit” is now complete. We can’t wait to see him on the Battlefield!”

Jackson’s reference to the Battlefield is relevant because Dain Ironfoot is mainly involved in the Battle of Five Armies, so Connelly’s casting suggests they’ll be shooting that soon.

Connolly has appeared in films such as The Last Samurai and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and will be seen later this year in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet. He’ll also provide the voice of King Fergus in Pixar’s Brave.

The Hobbit follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild (Richard Armitage). Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

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Evangeline Lilly says her character is “lethal and deadly” in The Hobbit

Liam — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:34:25 +0000

Last year Evangeline Lilly (Lost, Real Steel) joined the cast of The Hobbit as Woodland Elf Tauriel, a character not originally in J.R.R Tolkien’s book. Lilly said Peter Jackson and the team decided to add Tauriel to “round out the story” as an adaptation, and to add some much needed female characters (the only other female character is Galadriel played by Cate Blanchett).

In a new interview Evangeline Lilly said Tauriel will be more prominent in the second film, and the role has actually been expanded from when she originally read the scripts.

From EW:

Yes, she is a warrior. She’s actually the head of the Elven guard. She’s the big shot in the army. So she knows how to wield any weapon, but the primary weapons that she uses are a bow and arrow and two daggers. And she’s lethal and deadly. You definitely wouldn’t want to be caught in a dark alley next to Tauriel.
She’s not in the first film very much. She comes into the first film near the end, and has a very small part to play. Her role in the second film is much more involved. Although, I have to say, when I first read the scripts and took the job, she had a lot less going on in the second film. I think the role is becoming a bit more demanding than I had expected it to be. There’s a lot more for me to do now, which is a lot of fun, but it’s a little more pressure.

Lilly continued to say that she’s got around 5 more months of filming left to go, and she’s been on and off set for the past six, so she’ll probably have a decent amount of screentime. Book purists may not like the idea of totally new characters being introduced, but characters such as Tauriel have the potential to add a little extra to the movie.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th, followed by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13th, 2013.

The Hobbit video blog – Shooting on location

Liam — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:40:23 +0000

Days after releasing the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson has given fans another Christmas gift by uploading the fifth video blog on to his Facebook page. This video follows the cast and crew as they move from shooting in a studio to shooting on location, and we get to see Elijah Wood, Martin Freeman and the team filming at the Hobbiton set.

Watch below:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

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First trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Liam — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:54:29 +0000

Peter Jackson’s video blogs from the set have kept us occupied over the past few months, but today Warner Bros. finally released the first official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Watch below:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

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The Hobbit trailer will be attached to The Adventures of Tintin

Liam — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:06:08 +0000

Elijah Wood, who will be reprising his role of Frodo Baggins in The Hobbit, said a few weeks ago that we can expect to get our first look at the films when The Adventures of Tintin opens in the US on December 21.

Now Warner Bros. has confirmed that the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will play with Tintin starting next Wednesday and there’s a good chance it’ll appear online next week too.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

Ian McKellen gives an update on The Hobbit filming

Liam — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:17:34 +0000

Ian McKellen has update his blog again, giving us an insight into the filming of The Hobbit. In this entry he talks about shooting on location “at the mercy of changeable spring weather, sudden showers and variegated skies” and feeling “nostalgic” as he clambered “up the path that leads to Bag End” for the first time in 11 years.

Here’s a snippet (via The One Ring):

Our first filming destination was Matamata, where eleven years ago Gandalf the Grey made his entrance into The Fellowship of the Ring, greeting Ian Holm’s Bilbo on the doorstep of Bag End. The site has since been sign-posted as “Hobbiton”, where tourists in search of Middle-earth could ponder the paltry remnants of our filming, a couple of round green doors propped against the hillside. That meant that the village had to be re-built and the gardens re-plotted for The Hobbit.
All our trucks, trailers, generators, dining tent and loos were hidden behind and below the surrounding hillocks but it was nostalgic to clamber up the path that leads to Bag End where this time Martin Freeman’s Bilbo will be surprised by Gandalf. We filmed there for less than a week, this time leaving everything behind, so future visitors do not have to guess at but actually see Hobbiton in its glory. They will even be able to get a snack at the Green Dragon. Peter Jackson, who likes a laugh, suggested I take up residence as a tour guide in my blue pointy hat. I’m thinking about it.

You can read the full post here.

Peter Jackson and his team will be shooting on location around New Zealand for a while, and we’ll be getting the first teaser trailer next month.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

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The Hobbit trailer may be attached to The Adventures of Tintin

Liam — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:00:17 +0000

A few weeks ago Andy Serkis said the first trailer for The Hobbit was “just around the corner”, leading to speculation Warner Bros. could attach it to their Sherlock Holmes sequel opening on December 16th, or Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin which is produced by Peter Jackson and stars Serkis himself.

Now Elijah Wood, who will be reprising his role of Frodo Baggins in the films, has said we can expect to get our first look at The Hobbit when Tintin opens in the US on December 21.

From Digital Spy:

“I have not seen it. I have spoken to people about the trailer, I have a sense of what’s going to be in it, he told Digital Spy. “I think it’s going to be in front of Tintin when it’s released in the States.”
Wood admitted that returning to New Zealand to work on the JRR Tolkien adaptation was like “a family reunion”.
“So many of the crew and some of the cast who were working on Lord of the Rings are working on The Hobbit as well,” he commented. “In a way it feels like stepping back in time, some of the same people are there on set. It was kind of emotional, I didn’t really anticipate that.”

The first trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows featured footage from both parts, so Warner Bros. may follow a similar tactic with The Hobbit. In fact, New Line released a ‘trilogy teaser’ for The Lord of the Rings 10 years ago so the inclusion of footage from both An Unexpected Journey and There and Back Again seems likely.

Here’s The Lord of the Rings teaser for old time’s sake.

Viggo Mortensen won’t appear in The Hobbit

Liam — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:07:05 +0000

Peter Jackson and his team have managed to find ways of including Frodo and Legolas into The Hobbit movies, despite the fact the characters didn’t appear in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book. So what about Aragorn?

In a recent interview to promote A Dangerous Method Viggo Mortensen said he was at one point asked to wield his sword again when there were plans for a “bridge movie” set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but as that plan was scrapped he won’t be appearing in either film.

From Movies.com:

Has Peter Jackson asked you to return to Middle Earth in the Hobbit movie in any capacity?
Mortensen: At one point, the producers asked if I would do it and I said sure if Aragorn is supposed to be in the bridge story because he’s not in The Hobbit. I would rather do it than see someone else do it, but I’ve never been asked and they’re shooting the movie. I’m not in it unless it there is some last-minute plan they have, but I thought I would have heard of it by now. Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett shot something, but they’re elves and don’t change as rapidly. As you know, Aragorn is half elf and also lives a couple hundred years or more and he could be in a bridge, but I have to assume it isn’t going to happen. That was an important period in my life and I will always be grateful that the trilogy was so successful and gave me a lot of new opportunities. I never would have gotten A History of Violence, no matter how much David wanted me, had it not been for my newfound notoriety.

The “bridge film” would have been based on appendix material written by J.R.R. Tolkien, but Guillermo del Toro decided against making it when he was on-board as director as he believed the narrative and characters from The Hobbit alone are rich enough to fit into two films. It would have been great to see characters like Aragorn again, but focusing solely on The Hobbit and expanding it in places will probably work out for the best.

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First Hobbit trailer will debut “around Christmas time”

Liam — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:24:33 +0000

We’ve been getting a few video blogs from the set of The Hobbit over recent months, but we have yet to see a trailer. There’s still a whole year before An Unexpected Journey hits in December 2012, but Gollum and Second Unit Director Andy Serkis told IGN that the first trailer is “just around the corner”.

“There will be a trailer fairly soon, actually. Around Christmas time, I believe.”

Warner Bros. has Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opening on December 16th so the studio could attach The Hobbit teaser trailer to that. They could also attach it to Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, which is produced by Peter Jackson, stars Serkis himself, and opens a few days later on the 21st in the US.

Serkis said he was “having a ball” as Second Unit Director, and said they’re shooting “on the road at the moment, at various different locations on South Island in New Zealand. There are some truly remarkable landscapes that we’re filming in. It’s just stunning.”

The Hobbit video blog – 3D

Alex — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:15:42 +0000

The fourth Peter Jackson video blog from the set of The Hobbit focuses on the 3D, specifically the way they use the RED cameras, shooting in 5k, how much of a difference the 48 frames per second will make for the viewers and probably for the first time in the making of a movie, 3D artwork. So grab your red-cyan glasses and watch this awesome video blog right after the break.

This 10 minutes and 46 second video blog goes very in depth on the 3D and shows probably the most we’ve seen from The Hobbit yet. Peter Jackson talks about the original Lord of the Rings and how he would have filmed it in 3D if he had the possibility back then. Instead he made a lot of 3D pictures on the set of the trilogy so look forward to those in some fancy The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey 3D Blu-ray.

Because they use such big lens, getting the right separation with the RED cameras was definitely a challenge and we see how they solved that with special rigs that can actually adjust the convergence point of the 3D on the fly. We also see how challenging working in 3D is for the makeup and wardrobe team and how the sets had to be painted in very bright colors so that it looks right when shown in the darkening 3D.

48 RED cameras and 17 3D rigs are used to shoot The Hobbit and instead of giving the cameras numbers, they named them after family members or friends. At the end of the video they show how they made 3D artwork by having two artists, one working in red, the other in blue, side by side. To really appreciate their work you need a pair of red-cyan glasses.

The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey is directed by Peter Jackson and stars Martin Freeman, Luke Evans, Hugo Weaving, Evangeline Lily, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry and Ian Holm among others. The film follows the story of Bilbo Baggins and his journey to the Lonely Mountain accompanied by 13 dwarfs, to reclaim a treasure stolen from them by the dragon Smaug. It is set to open December 14th 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13th 2013.

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